Most broadcasting and cable networks in the United States are advertisement-based. Typically, in a program stream of a channel, such as in television (TV) programming, interstitial content items, such as advertisements, promotional media, and/or the like, are inserted in between main program segments, such as in a TV program. A network provider (network operator) usually enters into a deal with advertisers in which the network provider is liable to display interstitial content items for a specific duration of time for delivery of impressions to the advertisers. The network provider develops a playout schedule of a channel to display the interstitial content items and the main program content.
Traditionally, the network provider has to visually monitor the playout of the channel so as to ensure that the interstitial content items appear in accordance with the playout schedule. Usually, the interstitial content items are inserted in a commercial break based on the playout schedule, such that a transition of one interstitial content item to another interstitial content item is in accordance with the playout schedule. The transition points of the interstitial content items may be referred to as splice points. The insertion of the interstitial content items in the commercial break is prone to many challenges, such as a splicing error. For example, due to a splicing error a viewer may see an interstitial content item played for an extended duration erroneously. This splicing error may further result in other errors, for example, missing introductory dialog and closed captions of next interstitial content item (or advertisement), cut-off dialog and closed caption signaling, or display of captions on screen for an interstitial content item when such captions are not supposed to be displayed for that particular interstitial content item. Traditionally, this challenge was addressed by reserving a period of black video near intended splice points (i.e., the transition points) so that the error was not noticeable. However, such practice reduced media inventory and devalued viewer experience as well. Other approaches include visual inspection, insertion of metadata, such as society of cable telecommunication engineers (SCTE)-104-based digital ad-markers, and/or the like, to trigger the transition (or splicing) between inserted interstitial content items. These approaches, though they may improve media inventory to some extent, are still susceptible to splicing errors, such as an erroneous insertion of the metadata which may cause an early (or delayed) transition between the interstitial content items. Such errors may not be visually noticeable at an early stage of a channel broadcast. However, a repetitive error may lead to visually noticeable artifacts. Once detected, this is may be a highly laborious process that would take several days, even weeks, to compensate for the error and involves a fair amount of manual rework.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present disclosure as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.